Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Sting laid out everything he had planned for the bastard. I tried to listen, knowing I fully intended to actively participate, but my attention was focused squarely on Lemon. She had her chin up, her hand firmly clasping Scarlet’s. Her gaze flitted back and forth between Claw’s body and Hammer, where he lay on a table that resembled an execution table. In a way I suppose it was. Hammer was going to die. Hard. Just not by lethal injection. Oh, no. He wasn’t going to get off that easily.
The longer Sting spoke, the more satisfied Lemon’s expression grew and she focused her entire being on the man tied to that table. The torture Sting described was brutal. Scarlet looked positively gleeful, almost maniacally so. Nothing I didn’t deem appropriate, but I didn’t want the women knowing how inhumane we were planning on being. Maybe it made me too old-fashioned for this day and age, but it’s who I was. It was who my father had raised me to be.
Scarlet moved to stand over Hammer. “Sounds like you’re getting ready to have a fun time. Bet you wished you’d never fucked with me now, huh?” She spat in his face before grabbing a scalpel and slicing a bit of skin off of his chest. Not a big piece, but enough she made the man scream behind his gag. Everything inside me rebelled. Not because I didn’t think the bastard deserved everything she’d done, everything Sting described -- and more -- but because Scarlet should never have been led to feeling the way she obviously did. And because Lemon was a witness.
“We should go, Scarlet.” Mars, Scarlet’s man, looked desperate to get her out of there and back to the clubhouse.
“I can see this through, Mars. He was my nightmare. I can watch his demise.”
“I know you can, honey. But maybe I can’t.” Mars looked like he was trying not to flinch, but the fact was, the man was lying his ass off. He could totally watch the spectacle about to happen. He was trying to remove Scarlet from the situation in any way he could. I was sure he thought it would make him look weak in front of the men, but I knew better. It made him all the stronger because he thought he’d lose face and was still willing to do it if it was the only way to get his woman out without losing her trust in him.
“I’ll stay in your place, Scarlet,” Lemon volunteered. “I’ll be your witness.” I wanted to groan out loud. Did the woman have no sense of self-preservation? This could scar her for life! Probably already had. And that was the whole problem. She wasn’t a woman. She was a girl. Seventeen, if I remembered correctly. She shouldn’t even be here in the first Goddamned place.
“Not on your life.” Danica, Lemon’s sister, interjected. “You’re coming back to the compound with me and Wylde. Right now.”
Lemon, the brat, rolled her eyes. “You forgot to add ‘young lady’ at the end.”
Danica looked ready to spank Lemon. Wylde looked like he was seconds away from a full-on belly laugh. Until Danica tilted her head up at him. Then he looked just as horrified as Danica had.
“I swear to God, Lemon,” Danica bit out through gritted teeth. Then she pleaded with her sister. “Can you, for once in your life, please just do what I tell you?”
“If it were your best friend, Dani. If you were in the same position I’m in right now. Would you not see this through when your friend couldn’t?” I’d bet my left testicle Lemon knew the answer to that question. She was too smart. She’d never have asked it otherwise.
“Sting can do that for her. He’ll see this through.” Danica stuck up her chin in a remarkable resemblance to Lemon. She didn’t answer the question.
“But he’s not her best friend. I am.” Lemon looked like she was proud to call herself Scarlet’s best friend. Loyalty, to this girl, meant everything. When she put herself solidly in someone’s corner, she didn’t leave.
Then I did the strangest thing. “Let her stay. I’ll see to it she gets back to the clubhouse safely.”
“Like hell,” Wylde growled. “You couldn’t keep one of your own women safe. You expect me to trust you with one of ours?” The fucking guy grated on my nerves something fierce. He seemed like a fun-loving geek, but Wylde was as deadly an enemy as ever I’d faced. And not just with his computer skills either. While I respected Wylde, I didn’t appreciate his attitude. I couldn’t allow him to disrespect me, but how could I reprimand him when I’d been thinking the exact same fucking thing?
“I’d never have permitted Scarlet to leave the safety of our territory if I’d known she'd be in danger. I know I have a lot to make up for because of Claw, but despite what it looks like, I take the safety of everyone in my club seriously. Especially our women and children.” I should have followed up with her. It hung in the air unspoken between us like a specter.